A Monterey cypress tree that overlooked San Clemente’s T-Street Beach as long as 75 years is no more.

Rod’s Tree Service cut it down for the city Thursday on the corner of Avenida Esplanade and Paseo de Cristobal. An arborist hired to assess the tree’s health had concluded that heavy pockets of decay required the tree to come down.

“I know it had to go, but it sure looks empty on that corner now,” said Dennis Reed, San Clemente’s manager of beaches and parks.

The city posted a notice at T-Street in December announcing the city’s intent to cut down the tree and inviting people to call with any comments or concerns. Reed said people evidently understood the need to remove the tree and said there was only one call objecting.

No decision has been made on replacing the tree. Local officials said they are unsure whether it is feasible to put a new tree where the old one’s roots were removed.

Fred Swegles grew up in small-town San Clemente before the freeway. He has covered the town since 1970. Today he covers San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano. He was in the second graduating class at San Clemente High School, after having spent the first two years of high school in double sessions at historic Capistrano Union High School in San Juan. When the new high school opened, he became first sports editor of the school paper, The Triton. He studied journalism and Spanish at USC on scholarship, graduating with honors. Was sports editor of the Daily Trojan. Surfed on the USC surf team. (High school surfing didn't exist back then.) With the Sun Post, he began covering competitive surfing from the mid-1970s, with the birth of the the modern world tour and the origins of high school surf teams. He got into surf photography and into world travel. Has surfed on six continents (not Antarctica). Has visited 11 San Clementes. Has written photo-illustrated profiles on most of them, with more in the works.

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